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Sunday, November 27, 2011

Carla and Bert in Canada.Oct.4-Oct.18 2011

Carla and Bert arrived in Canada on the 4th of October to celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary. They stayed with us for two weeks, and we had such a great time. Lots of laughter! The weather was beautiful sunshine for two weeks. The first week we just relaxed and wandered around lake Ontario and had lunch on one of the many outdoor terraces on the Lakeshore.We just enjoyed the weather and their company.It was nice to be able to sit in the backyard and enjoy the fall. We enjoyed a couple of barbecues at night, lucky to be able to do at this time of the year.

A beautiful evening

enjoying a stroll along the blvd

Skyway bridge Burlington Ontario

clear water

View of Lake Ontario. in the distance Niagara Falls

We discovered a memorial plaque at the lake. I have to find out what it is all about.

Twin Cities

Just checked and found out that on May 6 2005 the city of Burlington signed an official twinning agreement in Apeldoorn. Burlington is a twin sister of Apeldoorn.

Two weeks ago my daughter and I were driving along on the roads in Burlington and were discussing these ridiculous bicycle paths.We agreed that this is very dangerous the way they have drawn lines on these busy roads. We said Burlington should have gone to the Netherlands to see how it is done there. Big was my surprise when I found out that a Dutch bike traffic engineer Mr. Wim Mulder -completed an update to their Cycling Master Plan but with a Dutch twist- their twin City Apeldoorn, the Netherlands - assisted in defining improvements to get more people cycling.We now have cycling paths through the whole city of Burlington. Which I personal find very dangerous. These cycling paths have taken over a part of the motorists lanes. My daughter and I agree that this is creating a very dangerous situation for motorists.We have enough space on the side of the roads where a pedestrian path is and a green space between the road and the pedestrian path. Why did they not construct the cycle path on that space. The way it is now, a cyclist is right on the road. This is not the way it is in the Netherlands. I cannot understand that this Mr. Wim Mulder designed it that way.It is ridiculous!.What I have seen lately, is that nobody is using these bicycle paths.I see bicyclist using the pedestrian paths and I do not blame them.

Anyway this is what this plaque means. Burlington has a twin sister in the Netherlands, so we can share idea's with each other.

I got side tracked again, which happens often lately. I start to do a story and then something else comes up. But I thought this was interesting so I had to put it on my blog. I will continue with the stay from my sister and brother in law here in Canada. As I said we had a great time while they were here.We went to Whitby were our son Dan lives and had Thanksgiving dinner at their house. Andrea our daughter in law made a lovely dinner.

Thanksgiving dinner

7 months??? How many are in there Andrea??

Madelaine

Let's start dinner!

This says it all!

After dinner we drove back to Burlington, all a few pounds heavier!

The following day we had cocktail hour at Monique and Wayne's house.Another beautiful day with lots of sunshine., and we sitting outside in the garden.We did not have to drive far, because they live right up the road from us.So we all had a couple of drinks and Monique made some lovely hors d'oeuvres.

Happy hour

Enjoying October weather

I think we all had a little too much to drink. So we went home and I have no idea what we eat after that. But we have a picture, that proves that we eat something. It was getting a little cooler and we eat in the sun room. What.....I can not remember.

What the heck is on our plate?

We decided that we would go to Niagara Falls and stay the night.So I booked a room in the Hilton Hotel overlooking the Falls. On the day we left I decided I would Google the Hilton and see exactly where we had to go. Big surprise, we were booked in a hotel 20 minutes from the falls. How was that possible. After numerous phone calls asking what the heck was going on and why in the heck were we not in the Hilton overlooking the Falls, we finally left around 2.30 pm in the afternoon. We arrived at the Hilton, of course very skeptical, because we had no confirmation. They had told us that the computers were down. So we said to the person on the phone that we were leaving and no matter what there better be a room for us at the Hilton overlooking the falls.On arrival Carla and I went to the reception and to our surprise they indeed had two rooms for us on the 6th floor overlooking the falls. So there we went up to the 6th floor and opened the door from Carla and Bert room,...a huge surprise....a whole apartment with two bedrooms, a kitchen a jacuzzi and.....overlooking the Falls. Now we were curious what our room would look like, so we went next door....another surprise.... same apartment with all the luxury what you could think off. I said to Carla we better go down to the reception and ask if this was correct. We did not like to end up with a huge bill.Off we went, downstairs. They told us because they had made a mistake this was what they liked to do to make up. Well of course we said that we really appreciated this. When we arrived upstairs we told the guys and had a drink, then I looked at the package we received and noticed that we did not get the special offer: the free drinks at the bar and the $75.00 voucher for dinner and the $10.00 discount for breakfast . So down stairs to the lobby we went again, and I said well it is nice from you that we get such nice rooms but you did not give us the vouchers. Big surprise again, they said sorry and handed us all the vouchers. We could not believe it. What a good time we had.We had a lovely dinner at the Hilton restaurant on top of the Hotel overlooking the Niagara Falls.

The next day we went on the tall Tower and made some nice pictures, overlooking the Falls and the USA. We had lunch and late afternoon we drove back to Burlington. This was a nice treat. Here some pictures we took, from the view from our window.

All lit up at night

Dinner with a view

View from our room in the morning

After our breakfast we walked to the tower and took the outside lift and went to the top. What a view!

This picture was taken from the Skylon Tower

The Rainbow bridge to America. in the background on the right the Hilton Hotel

The Maid of the Mist

We had a great time. We have been to Niagara Falls so many times, but it still impresses us, it is one of the most beautiful sites in the world.

All in all we had a fantastic two weeks with Carla and Bert.Hope they come to visit us again very soon! We miss you!